Our arrival signaled the first rain they had seen in the Maldives for several months, and it was making up for lost time. When the late afternoon storms hit, it was time to return to the boat to seek refuge inside the atolls and away from open ocean.

Surf guide Horce enjoying the first rain for a while. Our first few days were a little wave starved, with the forecast looking bleak. Days were spent snorkeling and having a look around the nearby island. But sure enough the swell finally arrived and lit up the spots we were trying to visualize during the flat days.

Chickens is named after the wild chickens that roam around on the island that the waves peel around.

There were times when several other boats would all be scouting the same spots, so it would be a case of scouting the spots from the boat and waiting for the numbers to die down. Not too tough when the backdrop is a paradise island.

Cokes doing its thing - many other boats came and left with stories of spots like “Sultans” and “Jailbreaks” which were cranking, but busy with boats. Collectively our boat found it hard to leave this behind, so we stuck around.

The Maldives also offers up world class diving and snorkeling, sport fishing and waterside romantic hang outs for newly-weds. If you aren’t in to playing in, or around the sea, you may struggle to find ways to fill your day in the Maldives.

An overview of the opportunities that are on offer – tough to leave behind.

I joined the boat not knowing a soul on it, and left with a bunch of new friends. We were all there for the same reason, and we weren’t disappointed with what the Maldives had to offer. It’s not an experience I’m going to forget in a hurry. Thanks to The Perfect Wave for the trip of a lifetime.

MUCH like the X-Factor, life after winning a competition on MSW can go steadily downhill. Those long days of sending emails to all your mates to big-up the photos, finding the judges home addresses on social media, basking the spotlight, your nose full of the scent of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd as you open your web browser. It all fades away like the final wisps of a hurricane in the jetstream.

Fortunately for Adam Cornick, winner of our 2012 Hurricane Leslie Shootout he had a trip to the Maldives to keep him warm through the long Nova Scotian winter; courtesy of MSW and those gents at the The Perfect Wave who flew him from one of the coldest surfing destinations on our corduroy canvas to perhaps the warmest and dreamiest.

It's a shame it was raining when he landed...

"The Maldives, for those who don’t already know, sits in the Indian Ocean South of India. It can be a bit of mission to get to, especially from North America. My trip involved a 12 hour layover in London, then on to Sri Lanka to catch the final connecting flight to the Maldivian capitol, Male. We had to sit on the runway in Sri Lanka for over an hour to allow a fairly impressive thunder storm to pass but then the fun started."

Adam Cornick

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